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Title: How to Make Money
Author: Dunlap, John V.
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "How to Make Money" ***
HOW TO MAKE MONEY
_By_
JOHN V. DUNLAP
[Illustration]
SOCIAL CULTURE PUBLICATIONS
151 FIFTH AVENUE · NEW YORK
Copyright, 1922
SOCIAL CULTURE PUBLICATIONS
MANUFACTURED IN U. S. A.
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE NEIGHBORHOOD PANTRY 5
HOW TO MAKE MONEY, MAKING CANDY 7
WOULD YOU LIKE TO OWN A SHIRT FACTORY? 8
CAN YOU MAKE NECKTIES? 9
HOW YOU CAN EDIT AN INTERESTING COLUMN IN YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER 9
TEA ROOM AND GIFT SHOP 11
ROOMS 11
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SELL REAL ESTATE? 12
MONEY IN DYEING 12
KINDERGARTENS 13
FOR THE STUDENT 13
IF YOU LIVE IN A CITY 14
LAMP SHADES 15
DOUGHNUTS 15
TO WHICH OF THESE CLASSES DO YOU BELONG? 16
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO? 17
WHAT EVERY GIRL WOULD LIKE TO DO 24
HOW FORTUNES ARE MADE 27
HOW TO SECURE A FREE COURSE IN SALESMANSHIP 30
WHO ARE YOU? 32
WOULD YOU ENJOY TRAVELING ALL OVER AMERICA? 36
TRY THIS TEST ON YOURSELF 54
THE NEIGHBORHOOD PANTRY
This plan offers an opportunity to enter the grocery business on $25
capital. The first step is to install shelves in a closet or pantry,
covering them with plain white paper. Next, go to a wholesale grocery
store and purchase—
25 lbs. Tea
25 lbs. Soda
25 bars of Laundry Soap
25 bars of Toilet Soap
6¼ lbs. Pepper
25 small bags of Table Salt
25 lbs. lump Starch
25 bottles of Wash Blue
The next step is to have printed a few hundred bills as shown on
following page.
Either mail these bills, or distribute them by hand to each home you
wish for customers. Distribute the day before you open.
In addition to making 25 per cent profit on each sale, you can establish
dozens of good customers your first day.
It is very essential that you use the brands of soaps, etc., which are
the best sellers in your town, and that you state the trade name of each
article on your bills. It goes without saying that in no case should you
list the “regular price” higher than the stores are selling.
Tea happens to be one of the most profitable articles in a grocery
store, and this fact enables you to make this liberal offer.
FREE! FREE! FREE!
THE JONES’S NEIGHBORHOOD PANTRY WILL OPEN FOR BUSINESS, SATURDAY,
SEPTEMBER 1ST
As an introductory offer we will give the first 100 customers who
either call in person, or telephone their order, ABSOLUTELY FREE:
One Bar of Velvet Soap regular price $0.10
One Bar of Satin Soap „ „ .15
One Pound of Soda „ „ .10
One-quarter Pound of Pepper „ „ .15
One Bag of Table Salt „ „ .10
One Pound of Lump Starch „ „ .05
One Bottle of Wash Blue „ „ .10
The total value of these articles is 75 cents, and they are all
every-day necessities which you buy nearly every week. No. 400
Ceylon tea regularly sells for $1.20 per pound, but we have reduced
the price for this sale to 90 cents, and to each person buying one
pound of this extra high-quality tea at 90 cents a pound, we will
give absolutely free the above listed necessities which will cost
you 75 cents at any store in town.
Telephone ——, and we will deliver your order, or call in person at
the
NEIGHBORHOOD PANTRY
123 Main Street
From this point, your next step is to explain to each buyer of this
special offer that you are opening a small store, and will carry such
staples as soap, sugar, rice, coffee, etc. Each Saturday make a special
sale of something to keep people talking about you. Three or four
dollars per week spent with a printer in printing handbills announcing
your special sale, will keep customers coming to your store and keep
people advertising you by talking. Do a strictly cash business, and you
will find your original $25 investment will grow into many hundreds of
dollars in the course of a year. You will be surprised to see how
quickly you will find yourself the owner of a real store selling
everything. But, remember, you must
Sell for Cash
Give Prompt Service and
Fair and Courteous Treatment.
_$10 Required_
HOW TO MAKE MONEY, MAKING CANDY
Get a candy recipe book and practice making bonbons, fondant, fudge,
peanut brittle, etc., until you learn to make delicious candy. Make up
about ten dollars’ worth and visit some store with samples. Ask them to
put a box in their candy case and pay for it when they sell it. Have a
neat card printed as follows:
MADE IN MRS. BROWN’S KITCHEN
BY MRS. BROWN
RIGHT HERE IN BELLVILLE
IT IS FRESH AND DELICIOUS
TRY IT.
If your candy is good, people will buy it, and you will have no trouble
in getting all the stores to buy all you can make. One woman started on
this small scale and owns a large candy factory to-day.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO OWN A SHIRT FACTORY?
Every man has trouble buying a shirt that will fit him. One wise girl
knew this and turned it into real profit.
She went to a local dry-goods store and secured samples of thirty or
forty different kinds of shirt material. She made an arrangement with
the store to allow her 15 per cent discount on everything she bought.
Next she visited the various offices, stores, etc., and secured orders
for “custom-made” shirts. She displayed her beautiful line of patterns,
and also a shirt all made up, showing the quality of workmanship, etc.
Next, she took the man’s measurements and he selected the pattern. She
would solicit orders one day per week and make shirts five days per
week. In a short time she was receiving mail orders and telephone
orders. Every man in town wanted her to make his shirts. Within a few
weeks she had employed six girls to help make shirts. Then she bought
her material direct from the factory and received bottom prices. To-day
she owns a custom-made shirt factory. To-day dozens of girls work for
this little genius. Each girl has one special thing to do.
CAN YOU MAKE NECKTIES?
To convince yourself of the tremendous profit in making and selling
neckties, just get the price of a yard of necktie silk, and see how many
dollar neckties you can make out of it.
Did you ever examine a necktie? It is the simplest thing in the world to
make.
Buy enough silk to make about twelve patterns. Use these for samples to
show business men. They will sell like hot cakes. You can make 50 cents
per tie profit. As your business grows, hire girls to make ties, and
employ pretty, neat girls to take orders.
HOW YOU CAN EDIT AN INTERESTING COLUMN IN YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER
Go to the advertising manager of your local newspaper and buy one column
of space to be used each day. Head the column:
“BARGAINS BETTY ROSS FOUND YESTERDAY”
“FOR WOMEN ONLY”
Next go out on a general shopping tour. When you run across something
that appears to be an unusual bargain, or something very new and
attractive, tell the storekeeper you will include it in your editorial
to-morrow if he cares to pay you your regular rates of so much per inch.
Your description of the article will depend upon how many inches of
space he is willing to pay for. Your charge per inch should be about
double the amount you pay the newspaper.
The value of this advertising is much greater than the average
advertisement, since it appears to be a news item. Women will learn to
watch for the bargains and new things you list, and it will be a genuine
service to both women and storekeepers, as well as very profitable to
you. Suppose you sell twenty-five inches of space each day at $1 per
inch. The space would cost you 50 cents per inch, so you would make
$12.50 per day.
“BARGAINS BETTY ROSS FOUND YESTERDAY”
“FOR WOMEN ONLY”
The Leader Store has received an assortment of white voile blouses
in many pretty patterns which they are offering at $2.79. I find
this price about $1 lower than the regular price for this quality of
blouse.
The Star Furniture Company are offering small rugs 2½ ft. × 5 ft.
for $4 each. The patterns are excellent copies of Oriental designs
and are a great bargain at this price.
The Duplex Department Store has just received forty models of
hand-beaded crêpe de chine frocks in all the latest colors, which
will undoubtedly go very quickly to the wise early shoppers.
(Signed) BETTY ROSS.
P. S.—Telephone me at Main 246 if you desire information regarding
where to buy. My services are free and I am always glad to become
acquainted with my readers.
TEA ROOM AND GIFT SHOP
The tea room idea has become a permanent fixture in the average town.
Women look for them and patronize them regularly. There seems to be a
tendency toward tea rooms of the Colonial type. Read the monthly women’s
magazines and you will find in most of them a column devoted to
descriptions of tea rooms.
ROOMS
In a recent magazine there appeared an article written by a girl who had
made a tremendous success operating rooming houses. Here was her plan:
She found ten girls who were rooming at private homes and taking their
meals out the same as she. She told these girls if they were willing to
pay her two weeks’ rent in advance, she would rent a home and furnish
it. Each girl was to have a large bedroom completely furnished, and was
to have access to a well-equipped kitchen and laundry. Cabinets were
provided in the kitchen for each girl to keep her food and utensils in
and a large refrigerator was also installed, which was always full of
ice. Two large rooms downstairs were furnished as a parlor and reading
room.
With her first two weeks’ rent, which she collected in advance, she paid
one month’s rent for the house and made her first payment on the
furniture which she bought on the installment plan. To-day she is
operating six of these houses and is now serving meals to each roomer.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SELL REAL ESTATE?
Read this woman’s story:
“Two years ago one of our neighbors moved away unexpectedly, so did not
have time to sell their house. They told me I could have all above
$5,500 that I could sell it for. I put a For Sale sign on the house, but
made no sale. Next I ran a small For Sale want ad, but still no results.
Then I had a picture taken of the house and had 2,000 handbills printed
fully describing it. I distributed them all over town and posted many on
fences and telegraph poles. Within one week I had dozens of people come
to look at the house and sold it for $6,500. My total expense was $4.90;
my total profit was $1,000. My advice is to go into the real estate
business. Go out and find houses for sale, then make the owner a
proposition to sell them. My profits this year will run over $5,000
clear.”
MONEY IN DYEING
Here is a profitable business you can get into without capital.
Go to your druggist and buy a few packages of dye. Experiment by
coloring old clothes or rags. When you learn how to do the work
perfectly, either advertise in the want ad column, or solicit work by
personal calls. Every one has clothes, curtains, carpets or something
which can be made to look good as new if they were only dyed. The cost
of the dyes is negligible—it is practically all profit.
KINDERGARTENS
Why doesn’t some clever girl start a “Kindergarten of Culture.” In
addition to the regular kindergarten course, devote one-half hour each
day teaching the children the correct way to eat and act upon all
occasions.
The idea will undoubtedly be successful.
FOR THE STUDENT
In almost every town and city there are homes where the children are
just at the age to prevent the mother and father from going out to the
theater, church, parties, etc., in the evening.
These people cannot afford to keep a maid, but could and would pay $2 an
evening to a reliable girl or woman to come in and stay with the
children once a week.
Why not spend two dollars in want ads telling these people about your
plan. It would be easy to get six families who would pay you two dollars
each per week; Monday at the Smith’s, Tuesday at the Brown’s, etc.
This is especially good for the girl who studies, since the children
will go to bed by 8 o’clock and the remainder of the evening can be
spent quietly studying or reading.
IF YOU LIVE IN A CITY
There is hardly a single firm of any size which does not have a quantity
of statements at the first of each month or advertising matter to be
mailed which overtaxes their regular office force. Many women and girls
in the city have started mailing houses. They make arrangements with
these firms to address their envelopes, sign and fold the letters,
insert in envelope, seal, stamp and mail them. It requires absolutely no
capital to start this business, provided you will turn one room of your
house into an office.
With practice the average women can address 1,200 envelopes per day with
pen and ink. The charge for this work ranges between $3 and $4 per
thousand. The rate for folding a one page letter is 70 cents per
thousand, 35 cents per thousand for inserting it in envelope, 35 cents
per thousand for sealing envelope, 35 cents per thousand for stamping
and 35 cents per thousand for mailing.
Most mailing houses charge 35 cents per motion for folding, inserting,
sealing, stamping and mailing. So in arriving at a rate for a piece of
work you just determine the number of motions required. Each fold and
each insert is counted one motion.
As your business increases, employ girls to help you and you will soon
be operating an extensive office.
LAMP SHADES
The actual material cost of making a silk lamp shade that retails for
$15 is about $5. Any girl who can sew will find making lamp shades an
exceedingly simple matter. All department stores sell the wire frame,
and transparent silk in many colors and designs can be bought at any
good dry-goods store. The sales plan is this:
Make arrangements with a department store or any other store who will
display them to sell them on commission. For instance, you allow them $5
profit on a $15 shade. If you show good taste in selecting designs and
colors you can build up a very profitable business in a short time.
There is also a constant demand for a shade made of cardboard,
hand-tinted in water colors which makes an excellent imitation of
genuine parchment.
DOUGHNUTS
In a Middle Western town a certain woman discovered the secret of making
old-fashioned doughnuts that would simply melt in your mouth. Neighbors
soon learned of these delicious doughnuts, and insisted that every time
she made them she would make a few dozen extra which they bought.
She decided to go into the doughnut business. She rented a small place
about the size of a small shoe-shine parlor right on the busiest corner,
and equipped the window with a kettle of lard on a gas hot-plate.
Everything was painted white, and she was dressed in white. She fried
doughnuts to order. Customers stood in line waiting for their doughnuts
to fry. It proved a tremendous success. To-day she owns a large, fully
equipped bakery where she bakes everything usually made in a bakery.
TO WHICH OF THESE CLASSES DO YOU BELONG?
CLASS NO. 1
Are you a stenographer, typist, bookkeeper, or an office clerk of some
kind who goes to work at a certain time every morning, rain or shine? Do
you take a few sandwiches along and eat lunch at your desk or in a rest
room, or do you go to a cheap restaurant? You have a certain time to
stop working each day. Do you dread the long afternoon—how lonesome and
monotonous!—checking figures, typing letters, filing papers, or doing
some other routine work which you have done so often? How you long for
five o’clock to come! Not because you are lazy, but because you are
human. Because it is not human for anyone to go on and on doing the same
monotonous work day after day without becoming weary and discouraged.
And then Saturday comes. How much is in your pay envelope? After you pay
your living expenses, how much is left for you to buy the things which
make life so bright for a young girl? When you go out on Sunday and see
so many girls wearing fine clothes and associating with cultured people,
what do you think? Do you think of the past weeks of discouraging work?
Do you think of your clothes, your kind of friends, your home life and
your meager earnings? At times you must look ahead, away off into the
gloomy future. Monday morning you awake feeling blue, tired and
discouraged with the dreadful thought of the office, the irritable
employer who scolds, the same faces looking at you, the same monotonous
routine.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO?
Perhaps you are being led to believe that you are going to be promoted.
Stop and think. Suppose you are promoted. What will it amount to? True,
you might then be able to wear a little better clothes and not be quite
so pinched for money; but after all, nothing else will change. Of all
the girls you know, how many of them doing your kind of work ever
advanced beyond a living wage? Surely your aspirations are for more than
something to live upon! What are you going to do about it?
You have two avenues open to you. One is to continue your present daily
grind and deprive yourself of the luxuries, the romance and the
brilliant future of a happy home.
The other is to learn the things you should know in order to become
successful, and get your full share of the sweet things in this world
while you are still a young girl, and can enjoy them. This avenue will
lead you to happiness, romance, and to all the niceties of life which
are so dear to a young girl.
Can you afford to miss this alluring future? What are you going to do
about it? Read every one of the plans which we outline on the following
pages. You will find one that will make the world seem brighter to you.
CLASS NO. 2
Are you employed in a factory or at some other kind of work which you
hesitate to acknowledge when you meet a new acquaintance, or are you
employed in some one’s home doing domestic work. If we could only make
you understand the great things in life which you are missing. If you
would only go to your mirror and look yourself right in the face and say
“I can’t do anything that will make matters worse. Here is a chance for
me to better my position. Here is something I can do that will give me
an experience which will pay up for my lack of education. It will teach
me how to meet and associate with people of a higher rank. It will
afford me an opportunity to enjoy all the luxuries of life which I have
been deprived of. Instead of rough hands and soiled clothes, I will
cultivate a clear, soft complexion. I will develop my natural beauty. I
will wear the clothes becoming to a lady. I will do it! To-day, right
_now_, I will take the first step necessary to prepare myself for this
new life.” The first step is to read every single word in this book and
then decide which plan you will select. Don’t just read. Think while you
read! Forget every single thing in the world but your future.
CLASS NO. 3
Are you shut up behind a counter in some store, displaying a forced
smile to shoppers who say and do things which belittle you beyond
endurance? Sometimes you are so irritated you feel like insulting them.
How many days you have stood there when you were so tired you felt your
legs would give way under you. How unpleasant to be greeted each morning
with that close, depressing odor from the stock, a snappy command from
your employer, and then finally to have an irritable woman customer who
makes you show her everything in the store, after which she passes a few
sarcastic remarks without buying, says “Thank you, dear,” and walks out.
Do you remember those hot, sultry days when you stood behind the counter
and thought what a miserable life you were living? Do you remember when
you would look at yourself in the mirror, your face all shiny, your
clothes soiled and the perspiration fairly trickling down your back? How
disappointed you were! You alone could see the hidden beauty behind that
form in the mirror. You alone could realize that your unfortunate
position was responsible for these defects.
How often a beautifully gowned woman with a charming daughter has
visited your counter. How often you have envied them. You simply could
not control that lump in your throat. How shy you felt in their
presence. You would eye them from head to foot.
Are you going on and on endlessly in this dull, monotonous strain, or
are you going to muster up your nerve and take the steps to-day that
lead to prosperity and happiness? You can no longer offer the excuse “I
can’t afford to prepare myself for a better position.” We will prepare
you absolutely free.
CLASS NO. 4
Are you “too proud to work?”
Are you one of those girls who come from a family who have tried to
maintain their local social identity by imitating the practices of
people with means? Have you led yourself to believe that you will be
classed as one of the common herd if you engage in a commercial
endeavor? Are you blindly applying 18th-century customs to a period when
commercial aggressiveness is a mark of distinction? Are you wasting your
life away trying to make yourself and others believe that you possess an
artistic temperament, when in reality you are nothing but an ordinary
person with a twisted viewpoint, trying to be someone or something which
you are not.
You, too, have two roads open to you.
The first one is to continue staying at home depriving yourself of the
luxuries and happiness in life, and be regarded as an aristocrat by two
or three dozen people who don’t know the difference between an
aristocrat and a hippopotamus; and even if they did, it wouldn’t make
any difference. Of course, if you continue on this road, you have this
advantage: You can get all your relations together once or twice each
year and go back over your family tree and praise each ancestor,
relating in detail his super-qualities, etc., which should make all of
those assembled very happy and proud. You will also have the advantage
of being able to entertain new acquaintances (very much to their
disgust) with the story of how your ancestors maneuvered from the time
they were gallant knights of King Arthur’s Round Table to the day they
stepped off the Mayflower at Plymouth. (If you happen to have any sense
of humor, of course you will confine these stories solely to your
relations when they congregate for the purpose of rehearsing these
folklore epics.)
You will also have the advantage of retaining that state of mind which
keeps you believing that your mentality is away above par and that
people will somehow, sometime, understand and appreciate your worth to
the world.
There are many other advantages (?) which the whole world is willing you
claim if you follow your present road.
The other road open to you is to stop trying to keep up an outward
appearance at the cost of depriving yourself of happiness. Stop trying
to be a big frog in a little puddle. Open your eyes and look about you.
Try to realize what an insignificant speck on the horizon you really
are. Try to realize that there are millions of people in the world who
have every quality, plus, which you think is exclusive with your family,
and remember that the only ones of these millions that the world
respects are the aggressive ones who “give” constructive effort to their
respective communities. Remember the world does not respect a person who
only “takes” what nature furnishes. There is no place in America for
these idlers. The day of inheriting a position that commands respect is
past. You will have to prove your worth or you will be eliminated by one
of the “common herd” who really “delivers the goods.” That familiar law
“the survival of the fittest” always has and always will be the
regulator.
There must be times in your life when you have flashes of realization,
when you must see the fallacy of your ideas. You must realize the
wonderful experience and pleasure which you are missing. You are going
through life blindly. You will pass out of this world without knowing
the real world you have lived in, for the world of your life is a myth
and like all myths the truth will be revealed to you.
Our plan will not only bring you prosperity and plenty, but will
actually pave the way for you to accomplish the higher ideals which you
are dreaming about. Bury your pride. Stop living for the benefit of your
friends or to keep up a family tradition which is rendering every
generation of your family weaker and poorer. Pretty soon the people who
now respect you will charge your whole family as being lazy and
worthless to the community.
CLASS NO. 5
Are you a young wife whose dreams have not come true?
Do you sit and think of all your old friends, many of whom married young
men who are progressive? Do you think of their beautiful homes, their
pretty clothes, and their circle of cultured friends? You are glad they
are situated so comfortably and happily, but you can not help envying
them at times. How your thoughts must wander back over your courtship
days. You recall that your husband was the most promising young man of
that set. You recall how all the other girls envied you when you were
married. You recall how easy it would have been for you to have had
almost any of the other young men.
How the picture has changed!
Somehow that promising youth of a few years ago has not been the success
you were sure he would be. Somehow, he has fallen into a rut and is
satisfied with a small salary. He has lost his nerve. He has lost faith
in himself. He does not count the “up and doing” young men of your
community among his friends. He does not keep up his personal
appearance. Every single thing about him has changed so. He has no
ambition to climb up the ladder of success.
You alone realize and worry about this sudden change. You know what your
friends are saying about both of you. How often you have heard them
refer to someone in your circumstances “the poor thing. I feel so sorry
for her. She doesn’t know anything but poverty and worry.”
Like all the rest there are two courses you can follow. One will lead
you to poverty and hardships, and the other to prosperity and happiness.
You alone can be the stimulant for your husband. You must lead the way
if you expect to revive his energy and ambition. You know very well he
is capable if only he would muster up and try.
Are you content to go along hoping for the best? Each year you are both
getting a little deeper in the rut—the rut that will finally submerge
you so deep that your old friends who are now starting on the right road
will forget about you.
Think how different life would be if you lived in a pretty home. If you
felt satisfied you were going up the ladder instead of down, down, down,
year after year.
Would you prove yourself capable of doing things if you had the
opportunity? Don’t credit the success of your friends to luck. When they
saw an opportunity they took advantage of it. We are laying right before
your eyes a number of plans which will start you and your discouraged
husband on the road to success. Will you pass it by?
WHAT EVERY GIRL WOULD LIKE TO DO
Get up in the morning when you have your sleep out. Arrange your working
hours to suit your convenience. Engage in some kind of employment that
you could do at home. Earn enough money to buy beautiful clothes, live
in a comfortable home and command all the other comforts and luxuries
incidental to a happy life.
On the following pages we will outline a plan which offers an
opportunity for you to live the life so much wished for by hundreds of
girls. You can sit right in your home and earn two or three times what
your present position pays you without one-half the effort. You will be
your own boss. You can start to work in the morning when you feel like
it and stop when you feel like it. You can sit in your bedroom in your
negligee or dress any other way you please. If you want to accomplish
big things and operate a large office you can do so. What could be a
more ideal situation than this? No labor to mar your hands or otherwise
mar your physical appearance. The cleanest, most enjoyable and most
profitable work any girl can engage in. The only qualification necessary
is to be able to read and write.
Here is the plan:
We will send you a quantity of folders which tell all about the Book of
Good Manners and the Woman’s Library. We will also send you a quantity
of envelopes. You address these envelopes to all the girls and women in
your vicinity. You can get their names from the telephone directory.
Next you insert these advertising folders in the envelopes which you
have addressed and mail them with a one cent stamp. We also send you a
quantity of small envelopes which you address to yourself and inclose
with the folder together with an order blank which reads as follows:
FREE COUPON
MARY BROWN
Mt. Hope, Mo.
I herewith enclose $3.00 as full purchase price of The Book of Good
Manners. In addition to the Book of Good Manners I am to receive,
ABSOLUTELY FREE, the woman’s library consisting of six books, as
follows: “Plain Talks On Avoided Subjects”, “How To Prepare and
Serve A Meal and Interior Decoration”, “Physical Beauty”, “Color
Harmony and Design in Dress”, “How To Make Money”, “The Book of
Culture”. You are to ship them at once wrapped in a plain box to the
following address:
Name
Street and No.
Town and State
Now let us see what happens:
You make $1.50 on each set of books. Suppose that you only sell twenty
people out of each hundred to whom you send the folder. Your profit
would be $30 on each hundred folders you send out. One person can
address about 1,000 envelopes each 8–hour day, so if you sent out 1,000
folders each day you would make $300 per day if you sold twenty people
out of each hundred you sent them to. If you only sold ten people out of
each hundred, you would make $150 per day, and if you even only sold
five out of each hundred you would make $75 per day, provided you sent
out 1,000 folders each day.
When you finish mailing to everyone in your vicinity, start mailing to
the near-by towns. You can employ other girls to do your addressing
after you get started.
What could be more pleasant than having the postman bring you an armful
of mail each morning with each letter containing $3 of which $1.50 is
profit to you?
If you wish, you can use your own name and address. Some girls work
their plans under the name of The Woman’s Library and either use their
home address or just rent a lock box at the Post Office. If for any
reason you do not want people to know who is running this plan, the
latter suggestion is better.
When you get started with this plan, we will furnish you with other
things to sell by mail. The first thing you know you will be proprietor
of a large mail-order establishment.
Later on in this book we will tell you how to get started on this plan.
HOW FORTUNES ARE MADE
When you hear of some one making a fortune you will find that nine times
out of ten it was made by selling something.
It does not matter what you are doing, you cannot go very far unless you
have learned the art of salesmanship, for after all we are all selling
something. The doctor sells his skill to heal, the professor sells his
knowledge, the bookkeeper his ability to keep books, the carpenter his
ability to build houses, and the daily laborer his services. You see, we
need salesmanship even though we do not happen to be selling shoes,
flour, books, etc. Your advance in life is measured by your sales
ability, and this is the reason that you should understand the art of
salesmanship if you would climb up the ladder of success.
You have probably read about the schools of salesmanship—many of them
correspondence schools—and you have undoubtedly heard of hundreds of men
and women who have increased their earnings from a scant living to
salaries ranging from ten to twenty-five thousand dollars per year. Many
girls who clerked in stores, or did clerical work at $15 or $20 per
week, increased their earnings to an unbelievable figure. Men who earned
only a living wage by hard labor or tiresome routine work without a
future, rose to positions where they became citizens of influence and
wealth—all through applying salesmanship to their daily lives.
Do you know that the average salesman earns three times as much as the
average position pays?
Do you know that salesmen are made, not born?
Do you know that the demand for salesmen always has and always will be
three times greater than the supply? To convince yourself of the
unlimited demand for salesmen just look over the “want ad” section of a
city Sunday paper. You never see an “ad” for a salesman read “small
salary at start.” A salesman’s earning power is regulated by his
ability. He gets paid what he earns. He does not place himself at the
mercy of an employer to regulate his income.
What could be more pleasant work than going from city to city, riding on
Pullman cars, living at the best hotels, meeting high-class people from
all over the world, and spending a few hours each day taking orders
which pay you a handsome income?
How could you ever expect to gain the knowledge this experience would
give you? How could you ever make the acquaintance of such prominent and
influential people as this vocation brings you in contact with?
But you will say: “I am a woman, and what do I know about salesmanship?”
And we answer: “It is just because you are a woman that we are telling
you this; if you are ambitious and willing to do your part you can
become a better salesman than the average man.”
Do you know that large New York firms are replacing their traveling men
with women? Why? Because they have discovered that a woman who is
willing to work can sell more orders than the average man. It is a rare
occurrence to hear of a woman failing to make good selling. We know of
girls whose experience was limited to bench work in factories and
domestic work, who after taking a course in salesmanship proved winners
and are now earning five times their original wages, besides living a
life of luxury as compared to their former state.
HOW TO SECURE A FREE COURSE IN SALESMANSHIP
Most everything you learn at school or from books requires a great deal
of actual practice before you can become perfect at it. In order to
become a successful salesman through a salesmanship course you must put
into actual practice what the course teaches you. You must get this
actual experience right while you are studying. The author of this work
has spent his entire life either selling or directing salesmen and has
discovered that most people who have taken a course in salesmanship had
a great many practical things to learn before they were successful. A
course in salesmanship gives you the basic principles; actual experience
teaches you how to apply these principles.
We have prepared a complete course on scientific salesmanship. This
course is not complicated or difficult for the average man, woman, or
girl to learn. The author has simply written the same instructions in
this course that he has used in training salesmen for years. These
lessons have made hundreds of people successful salesmen. There has
never been a more complete or practical course on this subject ever
written. Everything is explained in clear, simple language.
Our course teaches you—
How to develop a pleasing personality.
How to analyze your buyer.
How to acquire confidence in yourself.
How to keep up your courage.
How to cultivate the power of observation, imagination and
enthusiasm, to cultivate tact, self-control, ability to talk, good
judgment.
How to get a hearing.
How to create interest by your opening remarks.
How to arouse desire.
How to build a sales talk.
How to sell by demonstration.
How to sell by convincing arguments.
How to sell by reasoning.
How to close the sale.
We could cover pages explaining the various branches taught you in this
comprehensive course. If you are sincere in your effort to learn
salesmanship there is no reason in the world why you should fail. Every
principle of general business transactions is explained in detail.
This course in salesmanship which The Social Mentor Publications give
you absolutely free, would cost you $50 if you learned it from a
correspondence school. We are perfectly willing to teach you how to sell
just as we teach all our salesmen how to sell before we send them on the
road. We want you to be successful, since your success means our
success, and we are willing to give you the benefit of our years of
practical selling experience free, if you are willing to prove to us
that you are sincere in taking the course, and are energetic and
ambitious enough to pull up your end. We want men and women to join our
organization who are looking and thinking ahead; who believe they are
capable of doing bigger things than their present situations offer. This
course is intended for both men and women regardless of age.
The difference between our system of teaching salesmanship and some of
the salesmanship schools, is that we are not an assembly of impractical
professors who never sold a dollar’s worth of merchandise in their lives
and only teach you theory. We are a large business organization, whose
business is and always has been selling merchandise. We tell you in
plain, understandable English the successful methods we and our salesmen
have used in the past and are using to-day. Not theory, but practical
experience—common sense.
WHO ARE YOU?
If you are a married woman and have some spare time, we will show you
how to earn $25 to $50 per week during your spare hours.
If you are a single girl and will devote all your time to our
proposition, we will show you how to earn $100 per week or more.
If you are a man, the same opportunities are offered you.
On the following pages we will outline some of the plans from which you
can select. Each one of these plans gives you an opportunity to take our
complete course in salesmanship absolutely free, right while you are
getting actual selling experience. _You earn while you learn!_
PLAN NO. 1
If we were to tell you that within one month we can make it possible for
you to become Circulation Manager for your local daily newspaper, you
would probably doubt us. Nevertheless, we can do this very thing if you
will follow our instructions and if you possess ordinary intelligence,
plenty of energy and lots of ambition. If you owned a newspaper and some
one came to you with a plan that would almost double your subscriptions,
wouldn’t you want to employ them?
Before we tell you the details of this plan we are going to tell you
some facts about the newspaper business. Do you know that the two cents
which you pay for your daily paper does not pay for the cost of the
paper and printing? Perhaps you wonder how a publisher can make any
money. His profit comes from selling advertising space. The amount they
receive for advertising space depends on how many subscribers they have.
For instance, a paper which has 5,000 subscribers receives $100 from a
store for a full page advertisement. Now, if they can increase the
number of subscribers to 10,000 they would receive $200 for the same ad.
This ad would be read by twice as many people, therefore, it would be
worth twice as much to the store. Now you can see why the newspapers
want to increase their number of subscribers and why they are interested
in anyone who can show them how to do it.
Almost every daily paper sells a ten weeks’ subscription for $1. They
will pay 35 cents each to a solicitor for getting new subscriptions and
will also pay him 35 cents each for getting renewals from old
subscribers, provided he secures cash in advance.
Here is the plan:
Go to your newspaper and make them this proposition. “We have worked out
a plan to double the circulation of your paper. Our plan is to give
absolutely free a ten weeks’ subscription to your paper and the Woman’s
Library consisting of six volumes, which every home needs and will buy,
to each person who buys ‘The Book of Good Manners’ at its regular price
$3.
“The price of the Woman’s Library is $2 per volume, or $12 for the six
volumes; the price of ‘The Book of Good Manners’ is $3 and the price of
a ten weeks’ subscription to your paper is $1. Therefore, we will give
$16 worth of books and the daily paper for $3.
“All we ask you to do is to run a full-page advertisement in your paper
each day similar to this one (show him copy of ad which we furnish you).
All the mail orders you receive you turn over to me, together with the
$3. I will be out soliciting orders and will probably have a crew of
people working for me. I will turn over the subscriptions to you
together with 65 cents for each subscription. This gives you your
regular price for a ten weeks’ subscription after you pay your
solicitor. I will furnish each subscriber with the set of books.”
Now, of course, it will be your business to convince the newspaper why
people will want this set of books.
Where does your profit come in?
The complete set of 7 books costs you $1.50
The ten weeks’ subscription to paper costs you .65
__________
Your total cost of each subscription will be $2.15
and you will receive $3 for each subscription. Your profit will be 85
cents on each subscriber.
Suppose that you took twenty subscriptions per day yourself by personal
calls; your profit would be $17 per day. Suppose that in addition to
this, people would either bring or send 20 subscriptions each day direct
to the newspaper from this full-page ad. This would give you $17 per day
additional.
Now, suppose that you employed ten other people to solicit for you and
pay each one of them 50 cents for each subscription, which would still
leave you 35 cents profit on each subscription they took. If each of
these ten solicitors sold ten subscriptions per day they would make $5
each per day, and each one of them would make $3.50 per day for you. Ten
solicitors would make $35 a day for you.
We furnish you complete information telling how to hire and train people
to work for you. We furnish a complete series of sales talks for you to
use in securing subscribers. We furnish you copy to give the newspaper
to use for their ads.
We tell you how to go from town to town and manage campaigns for
newspapers; how you can conduct two or three campaigns in different
towns at once. Our course in salesmanship teaches you every phase of
selling and our course in “sales-management” which we also give you
absolutely free tells you how to organize, train and manage salespeople.
Before we go into the details of how you can get started in this highly
profitable profession, we want you to read every one of these plans and
thoroughly understand them.
WOULD YOU ENJOY TRAVELING ALL OVER AMERICA?
Would you enjoy sitting on the observation platform of a modern train in
company with interesting people from everywhere, seeing scenic America
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to the Gulf—mountains,
prairies and cities? Who has not dreamed of this wonderful experience!
Who would not enjoy living in America’s magnificent hotels where the
traveler enjoys every luxury which money can buy?
_You_ can claim this wonderful life if you are willing to say: “I _will_
do it!”
It does not matter what your present position in life is. It does not
matter how limited your education may be, provided you can read, write
and talk fair English.
It does not matter about your age.
It does not matter whether you are a man, woman, young man or young
girl.
The only things that matter are these:
You must get it out of your head that you are not capable of doing big
things. You must realize that the reason you are not doing big things is
that you have never had an opportunity to learn. Every successful person
in the world to-day thought just the same things which you are thinking
at some time in their lives. They had to learn how, too. You must grit
your teeth and start. Close your eyes to everything but success. The
most difficult thing about being successful is making up your mind that
you are going to succeed. Once you overcome that fear which haunts you,
which holds you back, you will become master of yourself and the whole
world can’t stop you.
Don’t let timidity, fear, self-consciousness, or what others think rule
you. You know you are capable. Surely you believe in yourself, so close
your eyes to these petty obstacles and work for your own future instead
of to please your present associates.
Here is the plan that will give you your start on a successful career.
Read it. Think while you are reading how easy it would be to explain
this plan to a buyer even without practice or instructions. When we put
you through our salesmanship course you will look back at the things
which now appear impossible and laugh. How very easy it all is when you
once understand. And how different the whole world looks to you when you
are on the road to success. The dread of facing another day of routine,
which is torture, of associating with people whom you dislike; of
feeling dependent upon certain people for your existence—all these
thoughts vanish like magic. How pleasant it is to be prosperous and
successful! What a satisfying feeling it is for a married woman to be
able to help her husband bear the burden, and how wonderful it is for
her to have plenty of spare money to do and buy the things she has so
much wished for!
And the single girl!—the single girl who is obliged to earn her support.
Few indeed are fitted to do work that pays more than enough to barely
exist upon. What dreadful thoughts hover over her! She has her choice of
loneliness and poverty, or marriage at the first opportunity. Stop and
look about you! Look at the girls in your circumstances who married for
a home. How many of these girls are living the life you have so often
dreamed you want to live? Don’t stumble along blindly. Close your eyes
and think—think of yourself ten years from now!
Do you see happiness—do you see yourself the dainty well-groomed lady of
your dream? Are you living the luxurious life and surrounded by the
cultured circle you expected? Or are you shut up in a few lonely and
dingy rooms with nothing but sadness and poverty as your lot?
What a dreadful thought! All the things which are so dear to you—a
dainty skin, attractive figure, youthful and radiant face—all changed in
ten short years. Surely you must see yourself as you will be in ten
years, slovenly dressed with a worn and tired face, rough skin and
straggly hair; nothing but poverty and worry.
What a different picture you will see when you have had a touch of
success. When you are no longer dependent upon others for your
existence; when you no longer get up in the morning with the dreadful
worry of another day of torture before you. When you no longer think of
marriage as a means of securing a home. And what a difference it makes
when you are successful and can afford to dress the way you have dreamed
of, and can associate with the cultured young men and women you have so
often envied. How different it would all be if you could afford to live
in the sort of home you have fancied! This is the reward of success. And
the difference between success and failure is expressed in these few
simple words:
“I will start to-day—_NOW_—to learn the things which will make me
successful. If servant girls, clerks, factory girls, stenographers, and
every other kind of girls can succeed in learning salesmanship and rise
from their humble positions to the top of the ladder, I too will
succeed! I must succeed! I have firmly determined to start now!”
If you had bought a hat, a pair of shoes, an overcoat and a dress, and
two weeks later discovered that you had outgrown all of them, would you
be interested in seeing some one who had a plan to sell these clothes
for you and get more money for them than you originally paid? Would you
listen to them?
Would a man who owned a furniture store listen to you if you would tell
him you had a plan which would permit him to get all his money out of
the dead stock he had in his store? We mean such things as odd chairs,
tables, rugs, etc.; things which he had bought over a year ago and for
some reason couldn’t sell.
Of course he would. He would be willing to spend two hours finding out
how you could do it. Surely, you will not admit that you could not tell
him this plan. You don’t have to tell it just the way we will tell it in
this book. Tell it in your own language. Tell it just as you would
relate it to a girl friend. The simpler your words the more effective
they are. He isn’t interested in big, fancy words. He wants you to be
yourself and tell him facts. Here is the way we would talk to Mr. Brown,
who owns the furniture store:
“Good morning, Mr. Brown. I wonder if you would be good enough to let me
explain a sales plan to you. The plan which I would like to tell you
about is one that has been successfully worked in many furniture stores
throughout the country. It is especially designed to clean up odd pieces
of furniture which are dead stock with you, and does not require an
investment on your part until you have tried it out and have found it
successful. If it works, you want it. If it doesn’t work, you don’t want
it.”
What happens next? Well, if you owned the furniture store and had a lot
of odd pieces of unsalable furniture, wouldn’t you be interested in
hearing of some plan to get your money out of this dead stock? All
right, then what will Mr. Brown say?
“If you can show me a way to get half of my cost out of my dead stock
you are just the person I am looking for. Go ahead and tell me your
plan.”
Wouldn’t you feel the same way Mr. Brown feels if you were in his place
and some one had approached you in this manner? You see there are no
mysterious tricks in salesmanship. Just put yourself in the other
fellow’s shoes and say the thing that would sound reasonable and
interesting to you—common sense, that is the keynote.
Now we will tell Mr. Brown all about our plan:
“You know better than I do, Mr. Brown, how the average woman’s mind
works. She wants something for nothing. Bargain is her watchword. She
will actually buy something she doesn’t need simply because she thinks
it is a bargain. I once saw a woman buy two picture frames at $1.98
each, which were marked ‘_Reduced from_ $3.’ After she had bought them I
heard her husband ask her what she intended to do with them. He told her
they had no pictures to put in the frames. She answered: ‘Yes, John, but
think only $1.98.’ Later I was in another store and saw the same frames
selling regularly at $1.75 each. I have repeated this incident, Mr.
Brown, to show you how a woman’s mind works, for my plan to sell your
dead stock is a big bargain sale that has been worked successfully all
over the country. Here is a set of seven books. We call them the Woman’s
Library, for they cover the six most interesting subjects in the world
to women. Before I go into the details of my plan to dispose of your
dead stock, I want to tell you briefly what there is about this set of
books which makes women want to own them. Remember, I am not trying to
sell you books. In fact, I am not trying to sell you anything. I am
simply offering a plan whereby we can both profit. I will sell the books
and your dead stock. You will get your money out of the dead stock and I
will make a profit on the books. Mind you, I do not ask you to invest a
dollar in books. All I ask is your cooperation. Now, as I started to
say, it will be necessary for me to explain the nature of these books in
order to convince you that women will snap them up like hot cakes. If
you were a woman, I know you would appreciate their strong appeal and
salability.
“This is ‘The Book of Good Manners.’ It tells you how to do and say the
right thing on all occasions. It tells you how to introduce, what form
to use when you introduce an elderly man to a young girl, a
distinguished man to a group of people, etc. It tells you how to
acknowledge an introduction and when to shake hands. It tells when and
how to make formal and informal calls; what should appear upon calling
cards; how invitations should be written, sent and acknowledged; how to
acquire perfect manners at the table; when and how to use the knife,
fork and spoon; how to eat asparagus, olives, corn on cob and other
foods so difficult for most of us; in fact, every conceivable question
which women are interested in is answered. It is simply a dictionary of
etiquette. Do you know, Mr. Brown, that almost every woman in this town
feels the need of this book every time she entertains or calls on her
friends? Every woman has been placed in many a humiliating position
simply because she did not know the rules of etiquette. It is surprising
how little most of us really know about good manners. Here is a simple
little test which not more than one woman out of a dozen can answer.”
(You hand Mr. Brown a folder with the questions printed on it. He will
probably smile and remark that he doubts if he can answer them. While he
looks at the folder you continue talking.)
“Incidentally, Mr. Brown, one of our methods of making people realize
the need of this book is to ask a lot of questions in our ads, similar
to the questions you are reading. You see our plan is to make them
realize that they are continually committing social blunders which make
them appear crude and common in the eyes of their friends. When I
explain about these other books I will show you how we handle the
advertising and copy of ads which have proved very successful.
“This volume is called ‘Color Harmony and Design in Dress.’ It is
difficult for a man to understand what a problem it is for a girl or
woman to buy the clothes which are becoming to her. You see certain
girls can not wear certain colors. For a girl to appear ‘at her best’
she must know what colors harmonize with her hair, eyes and complexion.
If she is too stout, she must know what designs and colors will make her
appear slender, and on the other hand, if she is too thin, she must know
how to make herself appear in proportion. And then there are the tall
ones whose problem is to decrease their height by the camouflage design
and color combination; the short ones who have the problem of increasing
their height. Perhaps this sounds silly to a man, but you know how vain
most women are, Mr. Brown. They will spend their last penny for a box of
powder or something that will make them beautiful. Of course, I am an
exception (?) ahem!” (This remark will bring a smile and relieve the
strain for a moment. Mr. Brown will pass a few complimentary remarks
which you will take good-naturedly, and continue.)
“I know that you are not interested in hearing all about a woman’s
troubles, Mr. Brown, but as I said before, I must tell you this in order
to show you how these books answer all of their problems. I am trying to
impress you with the fact that the Woman’s Library is not a collection
of ordinary books. They are the only combination of their kind
published, and I will wager that every woman in this town will want them
if they are put before them in the right way. They are the very keys
which open the door to a woman’s most perplexing problems. They are to a
woman’s life what a furniture trade journal is to your business life.
You read the trade paper because you want to keep in touch with what the
best type of furniture dealer is doing, and try to improve your store.
It is a woman’s business to be as attractive as possible, and there
isn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t grab at the chance to find out how to
become more so. You can’t appreciate what a problem the average girl or
woman is up against trying to buy or make clothes that magnify instead
of mar her good looks.
“Now, this volume tells ‘how to prepare and serve a meal.’ It tells just
how the table should be set; where each piece of china and silver should
be placed; at which side of a person you should stand when serving or
removing dishes. In addition to answering hundreds of these questions it
contains menus for every occasion from simple home dinners to elaborate
afternoon teas. Each menu is followed with recipes telling how to
prepare each dish listed.
“Do you know, Mr. Brown, that not one woman out of ten actually knows
these things? Do you know that every time the average woman entertains
she is self-conscious and afraid she has committed some terrible blunder
which ‘gives her away’ to her friends.
“The last half of this volume is devoted to ‘Interior Decoration.’ It
tells how to arrange furniture and bric-à-brac to beautify the home. It
tells what color draperies harmonize with certain colors in floor
coverings, upholstery and walls. In short it tells how to plan a home
that will reflect good taste and a genuine homelike atmosphere.
“You know how funny women are on this subject. You see it every day
right here in your store when they buy furniture. How often have women
displayed their total ignorance of color harmony when buying upholstered
furniture from you. How often have they asked: ‘Will the blue velour
upholstery on this suite match well in a room papered green?’
“This volume is called ‘Physical Beauty.’ It tells how to become
beautiful; how to care for the skin, develop a good figure, remove
wrinkles, double chin, freckles and all other blemishes which mar a
woman’s beauty. It tells how to care for the hair, hands and teeth. Also
home preparations which have been used by famous beauties are given in
detail.
“It goes without saying that this volume touches one of the most tender
spots in women.
“‘Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain English’ is a book on sex. It
outlines every single mystery of sex in plain English. I feel that the
title of this volume speaks for itself. You know without me saying so
what a strong appeal this subject carries.
“‘The Book of Culture’ contains a series of essays on subjects related
to self-development. Here are the titles of the essays: (show him the
book opened at the index page).
“This volume on ‘How to Make Money’ gives a number of practical ways for
the average man, woman or girl to utilize her spare time profitably.
Every aggressive woman is interested in ways and means of making money.
“Now, Mr. Brown, I think you will have to agree that this set of books
is something every woman wants and will buy.
“Here is my plan for disposing of your dead stock: Suppose that you have
a lot of kitchen tables which cost you six dollars each, a lot of chairs
that cost you five dollars each, a lot of mirrors that cost you four
dollars each, a lot of rugs that cost you seven dollars each, and a lot
of pedestals that cost you eight dollars each. All of these are dead
stock to you. Let us make up a list of the dead stock as follows:
Twenty kitchen tables—your cost each $6—your regular selling price
$10 each.
_OUR BARGAIN PRICE_ $9.98 each and the Woman’s Library given free
with each table. You make the sale, collect the cash and pay me $3
on each sale for the set of books. You will get your cost out of the
tables and $1 profit on each sale after you pay me for the books.
Thirty chairs—your cost $5 each—your regular selling price $9 each.
_OUR BARGAIN PRICE_ $8.98 each and the Woman’s Library given free
with each chair. After you pay me for the set of books you make $1
profit on the sale and get your cost out of dead stock.
Twenty-five mirrors—your cost $4 each—your regular selling price $8
each.
_OUR BARGAIN PRICE_ $7.98 and the set of books free with each sale.
You make $1 profit on each sale after you pay me for the books.
Fifty small rugs—your cost $7 each—your regular selling price $12
each.
_OUR BARGAIN PRICE_ $11.98 and a set of books free with each rug.
Your profit on each sale after you pay for books.
Ten Pedestals—your cost $8 each—your regular selling price $12.50
each.
_OUR BARGAIN PRICE_ $12.48. You make $1.50 profit after you pay for
books.
“Now let us see what we have done. We have turned $800 worth of dead
stock into ready cash and made you $190 profit besides. We have given
your customer a set of books which is worth $5 more than they paid for
books, chair and all. Will they sell? Well, Mr. Brown, as I said in the
beginning, I will prove to you by actual sales that they will sell. We
will sell your regular customers and we will bring you new customers who
probably would never otherwise have come to your store. I have twenty
sets of these books, and am willing to come to your store and help fix
up your window. We can fill your window with the chairs, tables, rugs,
etc., and attach a large card stating that the Woman’s Library will be
given absolutely free with each chair. In the center of the window we
will make a big pile of the twenty sets of books with an attractive sign
on them. I have here copy for advertisement which you can run in our
daily paper (we furnish you copies of ads to show Mr. Brown). We will
sell your dead stock so quickly you will wonder how it was done. This
plan, Mr. Brown, has been tried all over the country. We know it works.”
Now, honestly, couldn’t you sit down and tell the facts just related to
most anyone after you had familiarized yourself a little more with the
books, etc.? You see that after all, selling goods is more a matter of
common sense. When you have something good to sell and are convinced
people will buy it, you have won half the battle.
Suppose that you were going to sell Mrs. Jones our “Book of Good
Manners.” The first thing to do is to write down all the good reasons
why you think Mrs. Jones should buy it, and then arrange these reasons
into a short interesting talk. Try to think of all the objections she
will raise and have an answer ready for her. We have repeated the above
conversation between a saleswoman and the buyer of a furniture store
simply to show you that all there is to selling is:
First: Having something good to offer.
Second: Knowing all about your article.
Third: Explaining your proposition with simple words in the same way
you think it would sound well to you if you were the buyer.
Fourth: Knowing when to stop talking and close the deal.
You could probably explain this plan to your buyer in many different
ways and sell him. Each person has distinct methods of getting results.
Now let us see where your profit will come in. Each sale made would net
you $1.50 profit. Suppose 200 sales were made. You would make $300 on
the one store. When you complete the sale with this store you ask them
to give you a letter recommending the plan to other stores. Each store
you sell you secure a letter of recommendation. After you secure these
letters from five or six good stores you will have no trouble in selling
the best store in each city you visit. Remember, we furnish samples of
advertisements to you. Each one of your customers can copy these
advertisements in their daily papers.
The girl or woman who is willing to study our free course in
salesmanship can make from $150 to $300 for two or three days’ work in
each city she visits.
How can you get started? What must you do to get this free course in
salesmanship? We want you first to read every one of these plans. When
you finish reading, we will explain how simple it is to get started.
Have you ever known a crowd of girls who went around together, to
dances, parties, shows, etc., and then one day one of these girls was
promoted to a position where she superintended a number of other girls?
Did you notice any marked change in her, or in the attitude of the
other girls in the crowd? You know very well you did! You know very
well that something about that girl commanded more respect and more
attention than any other girl in the crowd. Of course, you said a lot
of things behind her back, but just the same you were only too glad
to have her invite you for a walk or to a show. You never failed to
mention the fact that Margaret called you up, and you went to the
show with her. You might have said some nasty things about her having
a “swelled head,” etc., but you said these things just because you
envied her. What a difference this promotion has made in Margaret’s
life. Everyone is anxious to cater to her. When she speaks every one is
silent. When there is a prominent or honorary office to be filled in
your clubs, Margaret’s is the first name mentioned.
How pleasant life must be for Margaret. What a difference it makes when
one is invited out to meet a young man or a set of girls, when they have
all been confidently informed that “Margaret is a remarkable girl. You
know, she is at the head of the Smith Company and has complete charge of
the entire force.”
Surely, you must have wished to occupy a position that would command
respect. You must have dreamed of filling a position where people would
look up to you and feel dependent upon you. Perhaps you have even
dreamed of having your own office with your name on the door, your own
bank account, two or three assistants and a score of girls working under
you. You have even thought of the thrill it would give you when your
friends paid you a call at your office and saw how successful you were.
Who would not be happy under these circumstances? Who would not enjoy an
automobile, pretty clothes, a circle of cultured friends, and all the
other luxuries which this position would offer you?
If you are a 100 per cent American girl, if you possess a drop of
imagination or desire to be something more than an ordinary girl, you
surely have pictured yourself managing some of the plans which we have
told you about in this book. You must have seen yourself as you would
appear under these new conditions. You, but an uplifted, radiant _YOU_.
Yourself, but as different as the drab moth from the beautiful
butterfly. For a few moments your thoughts took you to a new and
wonderful world, and then—and then you became your ordinary self again.
You thought how foolish it was for you to think for one moment about
doing such a thing. How could you? You didn’t even know where or how to
begin such an undertaking. You didn’t have any experience, nor the
necessary education, and besides it took money to start such things, and
you didn’t have any money. And then what would your friends think, and
suppose you didn’t succeed? And then you thought of everything you had
read, and the things that seemed so simple to you when you read them,
all ran together and loomed up like a huge monster. They now appear a
great, big knot, and you never could unravel it. The office, the bank
account, and everything seem like a dream to you. You have allowed
yourself to be carried away with a story. You were trying to live the
part of the heroine.
If your mind is not working about the way we have pictured it, you are
indeed a remarkable girl, for ninety-eight girls out of one hundred
think and act just as we have related, and this is why most girls are
tied down to miserable routine work earning barely enough to exist upon.
This is why girls who are capable of making their mark in the world
become discouraged and think that their ability is not appreciated.
What happens?
Rather than continue on these meager earnings with no prospects of
advancement, they marry.
And whom do they marry?
They try to marry a promising young man who is making his mark in the
world, but, naturally, a young man of this type is associating with a
more progressive circle of friends; therefore they decide to accept the
first offer that appears like a fair prospect of a home.
What finally happens to these girls? Unless you can look ahead twenty
years you can not answer this question. Ask your parents or a friend who
has reached the age of fifty to make a list of twenty-five of their
schoolmates. Ask them to tell you what has happened to them. How many of
them are able to retire? How many are self supporting? What kind of
homes are they living in? How many of life’s luxuries have they enjoyed?
And they too were once pretty girls! They too were considered clever.
They too dreamed of the same kind of future you are dreaming about. But
this youthful dream never came true. They patiently waited for the
opportunity which never came. The aggressive, successful young men whom
they dreamed of married the “Margarets” who had somehow dropped their
old crowd and had become favorites with prominent people. Be honest with
yourself! Why should you think you are so different, that through some
mysterious good fortune, everything will turn out all right for you?
TRY THIS TEST ON YOURSELF
This test will show you all your weaknesses and strong points. Actually
check with a pencil each thing you can do. This will show you what your
chances are for success. Go over each question thoughtfully. Don’t check
a single question unless you are sure you could do it.
QUESTION NO. 1
Could you walk into the office of your newspaper and say: “Please insert
this ad in your want ad column for three days?” You hand them a piece of
paper containing the following ad:
“Wanted: Girls and women to train for traveling position. Can earn from
$5 to $15 per day. Call in person at once. 457 Main Street.”
(NOTE: This ad will cost about $1 for three days).
QUESTION NO. 2
The next day a girl or woman will call at your address and say that she
came in answer to your ad. Could you invite her in and say:
“What is your name, please?
“Where do you live?
“What are you now employed at?
“Are you willing to call upon homes and introduce a new library?”
And then could you say:
“Miss Jones, I am the local manager for The Social Mentor Publications.
I am organizing a crew of girls to first canvass this town and then
travel all over the country canvassing each city we visit. A girl who is
willing to get out and hustle can make from $5 to $15 per day besides
having the opportunity of seeing the country. Before I tell you about
the plan in general I want to explain about the Woman’s Library and see
what you think of it.”
QUESTION NO. 3
After you read each volume in the Woman’s Library, could you with the
aid of our course in salesmanship explain what each book was about, and
why women and girls would want them?
QUESTION NO. 4
Now that you have told her what kind of books make up the Woman’s
Library, could you continue the conversation something like this:
“Miss Jones, the regular price of this library is $15. We have made
arrangements to print these books in large quantities, and are selling
the entire set for $3. We will pay you $1 for each set you sell. The
average girl can sell ten sets per day, so you see you would earn $10
per day, and even if you only sold five sets, you would make $5.
“All that you need to do to get started is to buy one set of books for
$2 which you will use as samples. I will tell you what street to start
working on, and you bring me your orders each night. At the end of each
week you deliver the orders which you have sold and collect for them,
keeping $1 on each set for your profit.
“I am employing several other girls, but am giving each girl certain
streets to work so that they will not interfere with each other. After
you have all worked a day or two, we will all meet here and get
acquainted. We can talk over our experiences and in that way help each
other sell more orders.
“When we finish working this town, we will move to the next town and
canvass it. You see that in addition to earning a fine salary, we will
have an opportunity to see every city in the country.”
What happens next?
She pays you $2 for a sample set of books and you tell her what street
to work and give her some order blanks. At the end of the week you give
her enough books to fill the orders she has taken, and she delivers them
to her customers and returns $2 to you for each set. She keeps $1 for
her profit.
What is there about this plan you can not do?
If you employ twenty girls you will have to do just what we have told
you twenty times. The oftener you do it, the easier it becomes.
Let us see if we cannot make that dream come true after all.
You make 50 cents on each set of books an agent sells. If she can sell
ten sets per day she would make $5 for you. If you have twenty girls
working they will earn $100 per day for you. But even five girls will
earn $25 per day if they sell ten sets per day. Just to show you how
impossible it would be to fail, suppose you only had five girls and each
girl only sold five sets of books per day, you would still make $12.50
per day.
When you get our course in salesmanship and sales management, you will
see how easy it is to start one of these plans. It will tell you
everything in clear, simple language. It will tell you how to go to new
towns and organize a new crew, and how to open an office of your own.
HOW WE EMPLOY YOU
To start any of the plans which we have outlined it is necessary for you
to have twenty sets of books. Naturally, we must get acquainted with you
before we can send you books on credit. On the first order of twenty
sets we require you to pay in advance. When you get started and prove to
us you are going to hustle we will send you the books and you can pay us
when you sell them and collect for them.
Perhaps many girls who read this will not have the necessary money on
hand to pay for the first twenty sets of books. If this happens to be
the case with you, there is one thing you must remember. Everyone who
starts in business for herself faces the same trouble you are facing.
But instead of throwing up their hands and saying “it can’t be done”
they go to some one who has the money, and borrow it. If you would go to
some one and explain what you are going to do they would be only too
glad to lend you enough to get started on.
Read the coupon on the next page; then sign it and return to-day
together with the money to pay for your first twenty sets of books.
FREE COUPON
SOCIAL CULTURE PUBLICATIONS,
151 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
GENTLEMEN:
Please send me absolutely free your Complete Course In Salesmanship and
Sales-management; also Bulletin which gives me complete instructions on
how to sell your books. Also send me free of charge:
200 folders describing the Woman’s Library.
200 order blanks.
200 large envelopes to mail the folders in.
200 small envelopes for my customers to return the order and money in to
me. Also send me bulletin telling how to start a mail order business.
You are also to send me copies of newspaper advertisements and complete
instructions telling how to advertise the Woman’s Library.
I am enclosing $30.00 as full payment of twenty complete sets of the
Woman’s Library. I will sell them for $3.00 per set; each set to contain
seven books as follows:
The Book of Good Manners.
Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects.
How To Prepare and Serve a Meal and Interior Decoration.
Physical Beauty.
Color Harmony and Design in Dress.
How To Make Money.
The Book of Culture.
Please ship them at once to the following address:
Name................................
Street and No.......................
Town and State......................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEX
_The Mystery of Sex Revealed in Plain English_
The secret questions and thoughts of thousands answered in
understandable language. This book is solemnly dedicated to set forth in
clear language the conception and birth of a child; to follow the life
of the male and the female from birth to maturity, explaining the causes
of passion and love; to advise those whose passions and desires are
stronger than their will to resist. This volume treats on every single
phase of the sex question which every mother and prospective bride
should know.
_PRICE_ _$2.00_
THE BOOK OF CULTURE
In a series of essays this volume treats a number of subjects in a very
entertaining and instructive manner. Among the titles of these essays
are: “How to Acquire Personal Charm,” “The True Aristocrat,” “The Origin
of Society,” “Social Defects,” “Successful Matrons,” “Courtship
Courtesies,” “Deportment of Children,” “Advice to the Young Girl,” “The
Art of Congenial Conversation,” “How to Cultivate a Vocabulary That Will
Mark You Wellbred,” “Etiquette for the Business Man,” “The Cash Value of
Pleasing Manners,” “Plain Talk to Women,” “The Art of Letter Writing,”
“Woman’s Greatest Appeal to Man.”
_PRICE_ _$2.00_
PHYSICAL BEAUTY
_Compare yourself with the “perfect woman.”_
Height, 5 ft. 3 in.
Weight, 137 lbs.
Neck, 12½ in.
Chest, 33 1⁄10 in.
Waist, 26 2⁄10 in.
Hips, 37 8⁄10 in.
Thigh, 22 2⁄10 in.
Calf, 13 in.
Ankle, 7 7⁄10 in.
Wrist, 5 9⁄10 in.
It does not matter whether you compare favorably with the perfect woman,
you might be in perfect proportion. “PHYSICAL BEAUTY” tells you how to
cultivate natural beauty at home without expense. It tells how to cure
skin disease, develop your figure, care for your hair, cultivate a
pleasing voice, acquire a graceful carriage and restore color to your
face. How to reduce and increase your weight without injurious or
troublesome treatments. How to remove wrinkles, double chin and every
physical defect which mars your beauty.
_PRICE_ _$2.00_
HOW TO PREPARE AND SERVE A MEAL and INTERIOR DECORATION
Should crackers be served with soup or passed? At which side of a guest
should you stand while removing his soup dish? In addition to answering
hundreds of these questions this instructive volume contains menus for
every occasion. Each menu is followed with recipes. Detailed
instructions tell you how and when to serve each dish. Charts show where
to place each dish and piece of silver, when and how to remove empty
dishes. It does not matter whether you have servants or whether you
serve, this volume tells the conventional way to do it. The preparation
and serving of formal dinners, breakfasts, suppers, dainty afternoon
teas, buffet luncheons, chafing dish suppers, tray service, banquets and
all their variations are explained in detail.
The “INTERIOR DECORATION” section is devoted to artistic taste within
the home. The arrangement of furniture and bric-a-brac. The color and
design of draperies, floor coverings and walls. It tells you how to plan
and maintain a perfect home.
_PRICE_ _$2.00_
THE BOOK OF GOOD MANNERS
This volume is a complete Dictionary of Etiquette. It tells you what to
do and say upon all occasions and how to appear at perfect ease when
others appear embarrassed. It also tells you how to overcome timidity,
fear and self-consciousness; how to acquire poise at the dinner table,
the dance, in the drawing room, and everywhere refined people assemble.
_PRICE_ _$3.00_
COLOR HARMONY AND DESIGN IN DRESS
Do you know what colors harmonize with your complexion? Do you know what
designs in costumes are most becoming? These are the subjects this
volume explains. It does not matter whether you are tall, short, stout
or slender; a blonde or a brunette—you will find the color and general
design of the garment you should wear fully described. It tells how to
conceal your defects and bring out natural beauty. It does not dictate
style, but tells what lines and general designs you should avoid as well
as the ones you should look for. It enables you to select only the
clothes that will magnify your beauty.
_PRICE_ _$2.00_
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. P. 3, added “How Fortunes Are Made” to the TOC.
2. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
3. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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